Highlights

  • Little Nightmares series blends cartoonish environments with nightmarish enemies for a unique horror gaming experience.
  • Supermassive Games takes over development for Little Nightmares 3, stepping out of its comfort zone to continue the series.
  • Little Nightmares' puzzle platformer elements are outside Supermassive's expertise, but its knowledge of horror could go a long way.

Debuting in April 2017, Little Nightmares is a puzzle-platforming series that's managed to stand out from the crowd thanks in large part to its unique blend of cartoonish environments and nightmarish enemy designs, giving the game a distinctive, immediately identifiable look. Of course, like all good horror games, there's far more going on beneath Little Nightmares' horrifyingly unique exterior, and that's something the 2021 sequel really doubled down on.

With a subtle blend of environmental storytelling, context clues, and light smatterings of short cutscenes, Little Nightmares and its sequel tell two compelling horror narratives, which act merely as the icing on a stellar set of atmospheric puzzle-platform games. But the Little Nightmares series isn't done just yet. Back in August 2023, Little Nightmares 3 was announced, but rather than series creator Tarsier taking the reins once again, this time it's all down to Supermassive, which has some big shoes to fill.

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Little Nightmares 2's Plot Twist Would've Been Even More Devastating in Little Nightmares 3

As the third game in the franchise is set to release this year, Little Nightmares 3 could have benefited from its predecessor's climax.

Supermassive Has a Lot to Live Up to With Little Nightmares 3

Tarsier Has Done a Great Job Building the Little Nightmares Brand

Tarsier created something truly special with the first Little Nightmares back in 2017. While famous names like Tim Burton have been blending cute and sinister elements for decades, this is something that had rarely been explored in the video game landscape to the extent that Little Nightmares was willing to take it. While both Little Nightmares and its 2021 sequel have their flaws, they're a pair of beloved horror titles, and ones that feel very developer-driven. When playing through the first two Little Nightmares games, it's clear that the studio shared the same creative vision, but now that team is no longer in charge of the series it created.

Supermassive Is Stepping Out of Its Comfort Zone With Little Nightmares 3

After being acquired by the controversial Embracer Group, Tarsier confirmed in 2021 that Little Nightmares 2 would be its last entry in the series. However, while Tarsier created the series, Bandai Namco still holds the rights to Little Nightmares, and following Tarsier's statement in 2021, Bandai Namco made its own stating that it was "energised to deliver more [Little Nightmares] content in the future." And that's exactly what's happening, with Little Nightmares 3 set for a 2024 release, without any involvement from Tarsier. Now, it's down to Supermassive Games to continue the pretty lofty legacy that these small horror games have managed to forge over the last seven years.

Supermassive's history in the gaming space is rather interesting. Founded in 2008, Supermassive spent the first five or so years of its life working on DLC for LittleBigPlanet, creating some family-friendly PlayStation Move games, making a Doctor Who tie-in game that flopped, and remastering the original Killzone. It wasn't until 2015 before Supermassive got its first big break, with Until Dawn putting the studio on the map.

Since then, Supermassive has mostly stuck to producing similar narrative-driven horror games like Until Dawn, with its Dark Pictures Anthology series taking up most of the studio's development time over the last five years or so. While Supermassive has occasionally experimented with games outside this narrative-driven horror genre, it's never worked out all that well, with PSVR games Bravo Team and The Inpatient being severe critical disappointments.

Now, Supermassive finds itself the sole developer and torch-bearer for the Little Nightmares series, a type of game that the studio has never really made before. While Supermassive got a taste of the Little Nightmares series after creating the Enhanced Edition for Little Nightmares 2, that was just an upgraded port of an already-complete game. Creating a new Little Nightmares experience from scratch is a whole other ball game, and one that Supermassive can hopefully knock out of the park, though stepping out of Tarsier's shadow is going to take some real work.